A television series presented by Michael Buerk will highlight the spectacular
houses and gardens of the National Trust

As an arms manufacturer who led the way in exporting weapons of death, William Armstrong did not appear an immediately sympathetic character. As the builder of Cragside, a country house in Northumberland – the first to be lit by electricity, (from his own hydro-generation) – he leant upon the architect Norman Shaw, who generally created houses on an agreeably human scale, to design a monumental pile from Elizabethan elements. But as a gardener, he cannot be faulted. Armstrong planted seven million trees on a spectacular valley site. They soften the impact of his stone and timber behemoth.

Today Cragside is open as a property of the National Trust. So is the garden of Wordsworth House, the poet’s birthplace, which by contrast stands modestly among the houses of Main Street in Cockermouth. Both feature in a 20-part television series presented by Michael Buerk, starting tomorrow. It is brave of the National Trust to expose itself to television again after a BBC documentary series eight years ago aired criticisms of its ways. But, despite some sillinesses such as Mr Buerk dressing up as a Georgian dandy, the Trust cannot really lose. This is because its houses, and particularly their gardens, are visually gorgeous. Television can’t have enough of them. We saw that with the BBC Four programme on the Trust’s Hidcote Manor Garden. Let’s hope that ITV can keep up the quality in the coming weeks.